Four months after Comcast announced its intention to acquire animation studio DreamWorks Animation, Comcast’s NBCUniversal has closed on the 3.8 billion deal.
DreamWorks Animation stockholders will receive $41 for each share they own. That’s a 24% premium to the company’s Wednesday closing price of $32.20. The companies put the deal’s value at about $3.8 billion.
Comcast is now in talks to acquire DreamWorks Animation. The acquisition would fit squarely into Comcast’s entertainment strategy by allowing it to build on its successful NBCUniversal entertainment business, which includes TV, film and theme parks.
After years of on-and-off flirtations, Comcast is in talks to buy DreamWorks Animation, the boutique studio run by Jeffrey Katzenberg that has struggled to move past the boom-and-bust cycle driven by its sporadic film releases. The possible deal would value DreamWorks Animation at roughly $3 billion, or about 30 percent more than its current market value, according to two people with knowledge of the talks,
Exclusives
The $81.3 million deal is the latest to underscore the growing popularity of Internet video services. Glendale-based DreamWorks bought AwesomenessTV, or ATV, at a price that could exceed $100 million if certain financial targets are reached. Just 19 months later, Awesomeness TV has now been valued at $325 million, based on Hearst’s investment.
That figure represents a 13% increase over the $750 million in revenue that DreamWorks as a whole posted last year. The company said the figure will remain at that level in the long run. It said the revenue will be as profitable as its animated movies, with a 30% profit margin.
Netflix Inc and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. say they have signed a multi-year deal for a new original series.
